Ali carefully wrings water from the spinach, bobbing his hands to shake the final beads of water before moving them to the Dutch oven. He pulls a bucket of couscous from a cabinet, points at it and then at the pot, flashing 10 fingers.

Ali, the cook at the hostel where I stayed last fall in Goreme, Turkey, agreed to teach me to make a Turkish dish, but knowing no English he's doing so by gesturing and flashing cooking times with his fingers.

A week later, back in Istanbul, I visit a grocery store to see if I can re-create Ali's meal in my backpacker hostel's tiny kitchen. The butcher has no ground meat, or simply can't understand my attempts to explain, so I settle on lamb sausage as a substitute. Yogurt is sold in containers so large it takes me minutes scouring the fridge case to find the loose single-serving container I'll need.

In the hostel kitchen, I've set the spinach to soaking when the hostel's owner comes around the corner. He pulls his son off the front desk and speaks to him in Turkish.

"He wants to know why you're throwing away the good part of the ... what's the word in English ... kard? Chard?" the son says.

OK. So you try telling spinach from chard when the label is in Turkish.

I head back to the store. No spinach. Down the street to a green grocer, but he doesn't know the English word and offers me parsley. Back to the hostel, standing outside to catch the Wi-Fi signal, I Google Translate "spinach" into Turkish: "ispanak."

The green grocer has none, but he points me down the street. Two blocks down, I stand in front of the Ispanak Cafe, a cafe and bar, and hope I haven't been sent on a wild-goose chase. Then, I see the vegetable stand down the street.

They have ispanak.

In goes the garlic, onion, pepper. Then the tomatoes and tomato paste, the diced sausage, salt and pepper, sumac and spinach. Finally in goes the couscous.

A new dish, and all I needed was help from friendly strangers half a world away and a single word: "ispanak."

Spinach with Couscous

Makes 6 servings

1 bunch spinach, stemmed, cut in long strips

2 hot peppers of your choosing, diced

1 yellow onion, chopped

1 large tomato, chopped

2 tablespoons olive oil

½ pound lamb sausage, diced fine, or ground lamb

3 cloves garlic, smashed

1 (16-ounce) can crushed tomatoes

1 (5-ounce) can tomato paste

¾ teaspoon salt, about

Freshly ground pepper, to taste

3 handfuls couscous, about 1 cup

1 to 2 cups water

Sumac (found in ethnic markets or spice shops)

Soak the spinach in very cold water, 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a Dutch oven, cook the peppers, onion and fresh chopped tomato in the oil on medium heat until the onions begin to soften, but before they become translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the sausage; cook, stirring often, until lightly browned, about 10 minutes.

Add the garlic and the canned crushed tomatoes; cook, stirring once, 3 minutes. Add the tomato paste; season with ¼ teaspoon salt and pepper to taste. Heat the sauce to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer. Wring out spinach; add to the Dutch oven and cover. Let simmer, at least 10 minutes.

Add couscous, water, remaining ½ teaspoon salt and pepper to taste; stir and cover. Simmer until couscous is plump, 5 to 6 minutes. Taste for seasoning. Serve sprinkled with sumac and with yogurt on the side.